There's nothing quite like watching the extraordinary dedication and concentration of a dog herding a flock of dispersed sheep into a small enclosure.

If you want to see the equivalent in the world of business, look no further than Ellen MacArthur, who plans to corral 100 CEOs into joining forces with her to take the circular economy to scale. The official launch will take place next month with the first batch of companies signing up.

MacArthur, famous for sailing into the record books by becoming the youngest person, and fastest woman, to sail around the world alone, has spent the last three years trying to mainstream the idea that we need to move from a linear model of production and consumption to a closed loop system, in which resources can be disassembled or broken down, and re-used.

At a time of increasing resource scarcity, I know exactly what she means, having been forced to throw my home phone away and buy a new one because a single – albeit crucial – button stopped working.

MacArthur is to be congratulated for going so far in such a short time. Last year in Davos, the circular economy hardly rated a mention, but this year there were several events dedicated to integrating its principles into mainstream economic life.

MacArthur is winning many friends, amongst them the CEOs of Unilever, Marks & Spencer and DSM, all of whom supported the launch of a new report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation showing that the consumer goods industry could save $700bn a year if they start taking action, such as introducing the anaerobic digestion of household waste.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman says that implementing the circular economy will not only save vital resources but also spur innovation and allow companies to succeed in decoupling growth from resource use.

"A new term has emerged in recent years to describe our modern era – the Anthropocene," he says. "It rightly implies that in this age humans became the dominant force shaping our physical environment. It is evident that an economy that extracts resources at increasing rates without consideration for the environment in which it operates, without consideration for our natural planetary boundaries, cannot continue indefinitely.

"In a world of soon to be nine billion consumers who are actively buying manufactured goods, this approach will hamper companies and undermine economies. We need a new way of doing business.

"The concept of a circular economy promises a way out. Here products do not quickly become waste, but are reused to extract their maximum value before safely and productively returning to the biosphere. Most importantly for business leaders, such an economy can deliver growth. Innovative product designers and business leaders are already venturing into this space."

Kingfisher CEO Ian Cheshire, who has committed to 1,000 B&Q DIY products being developed around the circular economy principles, explains in the video (above) why he believes the concept is so powerful.

What MacArthur has done is taken a number of ideas, such as biomimicry and recycling, and brought them together under one over-arching idea, the circular economy.

The masterstroke, though, has been to bring the analytical skills of global management consultancy McKinsey to bear by putting real figures on what can be achieved, rather than relying on the idea on its own to be compelling.

At Davos this year, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation published its second annual report which highlights the fact that the goods an OECD citizen buys for consumption annually – 800 kg of food and beverages, 120kg of packaging, and 20kg of new clothing and shoes – are, for the most part, not returned for any further economic use. In the current "take-make-dispose" system, around 80% of these materials will end up in incinerators, landfill or wastewater. They come to a dead end.

The report says that even in the short term, without a dramatic application of bio-based products and the full redesign of supply chains, the value that can be recovered could be increased to 50%.

Examples of action that can be taken include:

• Household food waste. An income stream of $1.5bn could be generated annually for municipalities and investors by collecting household food waste in the UK to generate biogas and return nutrients to agricultural soils.

• Industrial beverage processing waste. Additional profits could be created in Brazil on top of the margin for beer by selling the biggest waste product, brewer's spent grains, to farmers in the fish farming (specifically tilapia) and livestock sectors.

• Packaging. A cost reduction of 20% for beer manufacturers would be possible in the UK by shifting from disposable to reusable glass beer bottles.

Those are some of the facts and figures, but it's also important to see how MacArthur is also showing that it is possible for even a single person to cut through the Gordian knot of inaction over the sustainability challenges of our age.

Because MacArthur came from outside the business world, she has not been confined by the culture of the status quo, and is not impressed by any of the excuses companies have for why they cannot challenge the current way of doing business.

In that way, she is the perfect example of how an inter-disciplinary approach to the world's current problems is so important and how the courage of one person to stand up and be counted can make all the difference. Just look back at history and you will realise that this has always been the case.